Frozen by Daylight
by Cryoshade
Summary: An innocent attempt at sisterly bonding turns into a horrific night of terror and death.
1. RUN

"Life's too short."

Those words were her mantra, both her reason and excuse for jumping into situations and experiences without thinking. She wanted to enjoy as much of the world as she could before her time came, so that when she stood on the precipice between this life and the next, she had no regrets about moving on.

It was just unfortunate that those words were only ever used out loud when she was arguing with her sister.

She sighed. Where Anna looked forward to the opportunities each new day, Elsa was content to let it pass by without her, creating a world of her own behind closed doors and losing herself to her work.

It never used to be that way. Anna had many fond memories of her youth when she and Elsa were best friends, using the family estate as their personal playground for games and mischief. Those were simpler times filled with laughter and color, with smiling faces everywhere she looked.

Now everything was old and gray, cobwebs and dust, and hardly a soul to come home to. As Anna took to the old halls of the estate, she did so with a mission in mind to bring that warm feeling back to these rooms. The place was cold for years now; not from a lack of central heating, of course, but there were many blames to be placed for the darkness that lingered within the walls.

Her family name was one of them. Arendelle was synonymous with class, practicality and honesty, as well as ambitious blood that trickled down through the generations. It was no wonder that Arendelle Enterprises had become one of the most successful companies to emerge in the last 100 years, supported by a line of determined leaders who would do anything to see it flourish. The company had given Anna's family everything they could ever want… but it took away more than they were willing to lose.

Three years ago, her parents left to attend the opening of a new company branch in Norway. Two days after they departed, Elsa received a phone call while Anna was watching the evening broadcast. She saw the news before Elsa broke it to her: The private plane carrying their parents had crashed into the sea, bodies and black boxes all lost beneath the waves.

All Anna remembered about the following months was grief and chaos. The funeral felt more like a business council; there were so many men in black suits and women in pencil skirts than she could count, and all of them were interrogating Elsa, wondering in which direction she would lead her newly acquired company. She was so overwhelmed that she emotionally shut down, never able to properly grieve. She still had yet to do so.

That was the point when everything changed. After a year of rushed education and training, Elsa was formally and publicly reintroduced to the world as CEO of Arendelle Enterprises amidst a maelstrom of rumors. She was accused of sabotaging the private plane her parents died in, almost proven guilty when a sound bite was leaked of her saying that she wanted "to claim my inheritance while I'm young." Inexperience also made her turn a blind eye to a scandal occurring in her own home until the family butler, Kai, informed her of the gardener's suspicious activity.

The gardener was snooping in places he shouldn't have been while Elsa was at the office and Anna was at school. He'd sneak into her study, take pictures of some of the proposals and projects she was working on at home, and then sell that information to rival companies for a large sum. He was arrested the moment they had proof of his misdeeds, and Elsa reduced the staff at the estate as a result, feeling safer with fewer eyes to pry into her business.

Anna hated it. She understood Elsa's reasons for doing so, but the men and women who cared for the estate were good people. They looked after the heirs to the Arendelle fortune like they were part of the family, and Anna talked to them as such, reveling in the conversations she'd have because she certainly didn't get such courtesy from her sister. If she even saw Elsa when she was home, the few words they'd share would often turn into a fight, leaving Anna with a desire to escape the house and everything the name "Arendelle" forced upon her.

She hesitated as she came to a decorated brown door at the end of the hall. More than anything, Anna just wanted things to go back to the way they used to be, with Elsa as her sister and _not_ a CEO.

Her knuckles rapped the wood, hollow sound echoing down the hallway. "Elsa? It's me, Anna."

"…You can come in."

The moment Anna opened the door and set foot into the study, she felt angry. Part of it was because she and Elsa had most of their arguments in here; most of it was due to it being like Elsa's prison, the only place she'd go in the estate aside from her room and other necessaries.

Anna did what she could to brush off the feeling. "Working hard?" she asked as she closed the door behind her. When she turned to look at her sister's desk, she stilled, surprised by the stacks of folders and paperwork she'd brought home from the office. "Okay, yeah, I guess you are."

"My advisors are pushing me to look into partnering with the Weselton Corporation. It's an import/export trade back in Norway," Elsa explained, never once looking up from a file in her hands. "The research on their company is… extensive."

"That's putting it lightly."

Elsa shrugged, ignoring Anna when she took a stack of papers and started skimming through them. "I'm glad for it, though. Weselton runs a successful business, but something about them doesn't add up. Profit-wise, we'd benefit, but it feels wrong. I just can't figure out why."

"…Maybe you need a little break from it?" Anna's suggestion came with a hopeful smile that maybe this time, Elsa would bite the bait she was holding out for her. "Like, take an actual day off to clear your head so you can attack the decision later."

The file went rigid in Elsa's hands. She looked at Anna over the rims of her reading glasses, setting such an irritated glare upon her that Anna got the chills. "I can't take a day off," she stated, sounding like a broken record to Anna's ears. "I have a board meeting tomorrow and Weselton's on the table for discussion. I can't just ignore this."

"You wouldn't be _ignoring_ it… you'd just be pushing it to the side for later," Anna explained. "You know, like the lutefisk Dad would always make us eat at Christmas."

"And just like lutefisk, Weselton is a stink that I can't avoid no matter where I go."

"Well you can at _least_ put a lid on it!" Anna set the papers atop the stack, pressing down on it when Elsa buried her nose back into the file. "Come on! You get one day off a week and you stay in here like there's nothing else better to do." She reached over the file and knocked on the desk space between Elsa's arms. "In case you forgot, we live in a big-ass house with a lot of stuff in it. There's a whole world to see outside of the study and your bedroom."

"Not this again…" Elsa groaned, closing the file and throwing it to the desk. With a tired expression, she leaned on the armrest of her chair with her elbow and rubbed her forehead. "How many times do we have to have this conversation, Anna? I'm the CEO of a company that I'm just now grasping how to run. I have deadlines," she hissed as Anna started pacing the room. "I have a _lot_ of people depending on me to do my job right so they still have theirs. I'm sorry that you're bored, but until things stabilize in the office and with the media, nothing's going to change."

Anna stopped pacing. She crossed her arms and looked over her shoulder at Elsa, giving her a good, long hard stare as though she was trying to figure something out. It didn't take her long at all. "You're just like Dad," she said, sounding bitter when Elsa thought it should have been a compliment. The resemblance between the late patriarch and his heir was uncanny. "He never made time for us. He was always working, too. Elsa, you never leave the office even when you're home. God, you even _dress_ like you're going to work on your day off."

Elsa didn't look down at herself, but the blush across her nose came as though she did. A simple gray sweater over a collared shirt was fine enough for the house, but the black blazer and jeans she paired with it made it look like it was Casual Friday. She looked away to a painting of her father at the side of the room, resting her chin in her palm as she reflected on his memory.

"Elsa… please, just for _once_ ," Anna begged. "Let's hang out for a few hours like we used to. You'll have all night to go through… _this_ ," she gestured towards the stacks of paperwork and files. Elsa merely glanced at it before she looked away again. "Save those weasels and lutefisk for later and _live_ for once, just for the afternoon. Life's too short to spend it all on work."

There were those words again. Every time Anna said them, Elsa's heart clenched. She knew what she was missing out on: the world outside and the wasted time she could have spent with the last of her family. She had an obligation to those who worked with and for her; she felt it was her sacred duty to lead the company in the same tireless manner her father did.

But in retrospect… she had a duty to Anna as well. The one thing Elsa did not admire about her father was the way he often neglected his family due to work. She was falling right in his footsteps, and it pained her every time Anna reminded her about it.

With a deep breath, Elsa took one last look at the file she threw down on the desk. "…Just for the afternoon?" she asked, afraid to shirk her responsibility as much as she wanted to.

Anna nodded. "You'll be back in here reading about weasels in no time."

A small smile spread across Elsa's lips. "Okay then." She slid her chair back and took off her glasses, setting them next to the desk lamp. She stood and walked around the edge of the workspace, putting her back to the portrait as she faced her little sister. "What did you have in mind?"

* * *

A crisp wind rustled the branches above, sending dead autumn leaves twisting through the air. The cool weather suited Elsa, doing well to ease her stress and take her mind out of the office for as long as she could stand it. Anna was enjoying herself as well, kicking around leaf piles as they wandered away from the estate property and into the forest.

"The sun feels good, yeah?" Anna smiled, catching the rays on her face where they pierced through the trees. She skipped along the trail they followed, turning back towards Elsa as she casually walked behind. "See? Isn't this better than sitting in that dusty old study all day?"

Elsa put her hands in the pockets of her blazer and shrugged. "It's a welcome break, that's for sure," she said, managing a meager smile. The sight of Anna's copper hair among the fall colors brought her fond memories of years past. She looked along the trail, spotting familiar trees and rocks that remained undisturbed since her last venture in her youth. "Mother used to take us on picnics out here."

"Yeah, we used to sit in the gazebo right over… there!" Ignorant of personal space, Anna grabbed Elsa's hand and pulled her off the trail, leading her towards the old sitting area. The thing was weathered beyond belief, so much so that it was a wonder that Anna recognized it. The teal shingles on the slanted roof were sun-bleached or completely missing, and the stones that made up the pillars were eroded to the cement. Even the details on the stone table and chairs inside were rubbed away after years of neglect.

What tied it all together, though, were the eerie roots that crept over the place. They slithered up the pillars, nested over the roof and strangled the sitting area, creating an atmosphere of unease that Anna happily walked into.

"Wow, that's in rough shape. Did we ever have someone to take care of this?" Anna asked as she swiped her hand over a rootless part of the table. She looked at her palm and stuck out her tongue in disgust, wiping the dirt off on her jeans. "Was it that gardener you fired?"

Elsa looked up at the cobwebs in the support beams, lost in thought. "Maybe. I haven't been out here since I was a kid, so I'm not really sure. It's technically not on the estate grounds."

"It's still ours though, right? I mean, there's not another house around here for over a mile."

"Well of course it's still ours. It just… needs a little repair, that's all," Elsa concluded. She touched a stone on one of the pillars and reeled back when it separated from the concrete. Wary now of the gazebo's stability, she stepped away from it and beckoned Anna to do the same. "Maybe we'll clean it up in spring. It'd make a nice sitting area if we plant some crocuses around it."

The idea carried hope that maybe Elsa was coming around and realizing what she was missing. If the gazebo gave the sisters a project to work on together, well… maybe that would bring them closer together. Maybe Elsa would be willing to let Anna help her with the company once in a while to ease her stress and have time for her family again.

It was a dream that she'd hold onto for the future. For now, Anna was content with their walk. It was nice to just be with Elsa and talk about anything other than work or school. Reminiscing about their childhood was fun as well, and it got Elsa to open up a little more.

"I remember you tripped over there," Elsa said, pointing to a thick root sticking up in the trail. "We were playing tag, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." Anna rolled her eyes and glared at the root, damning it since that day long ago. "Stupid tree."

"It's your own fault," Elsa grinned, giving her sister a playful shove. "I warned you not to run so far from the house."

Anna shoved her back. "Hey, I was _five_ , okay? You were bigger and faster than me and I didn't want to lose to you _again._ Not that it matters now," she shrugged. "I bet I could outrun you no problem."

"Oh really?" Elsa stopped walking and put her hands on her hips, smirking and raising a brow. "Is that a challenge?"

"Ha! If it was a challenge, I would have won already!" Anna bragged. She crossed her arms as her own confident smirk spread across her lips. "You sit on your butt all day. _I_ have Phys. Ed. for an hour every morning. There's no competition, sis."

"Back it up, then."

It was hard for Anna not to laugh when Elsa pulled back her left leg to stretch out her quad muscles. She was actually, seriously going to race her through the woods.

 _Wow, that's different. Thirty minutes outside and she's losing it already. Way to go, Anna._

"Do you remember that stream we used to play in as kids? The one with the waterfalls?" Elsa asked. She switched legs in her stretch, happy when Anna nodded. "Race ya there. Winner gets bragging rights for a month."

The stream wasn't far at all. It would be a mad sprint to see who could get there first, and Anna was confident that for the first time in her life, she'd outpace her big sister and prove she was the better.

Plus, holding the victory over her head for a whole month was such a strong incentive that she couldn't say no.

"Oh, get ready to eat my dust." Her confidence grew as she did a short stretch herself, working her back muscles before bouncing on her toes to raise her heartbeat. She settled into a stance, searching the uneven path ahead that was covered by fallen leaves. "You are _so_ going to lose!"

Elsa merely shrugged and took a stance as well. "You know I ran track in high school."

"So? That was years ago."

"Did you also know that there's a gym at the office?"

To be fair, Anna was about nine years old the last time she visited the trade firm. The only thing she remembered about it was the lobby and Papa's desk upstairs.

Her pensive stare only hardened the smirk on Elsa's face. "I run three miles every morning before the daily board meeting. So, really, I'm running while _you're_ sitting on your butt at school."

Shots _fired._

"Psh! Fine, whatever! Can we just do this?" Anna asked, tired of Elsa's gloating. She couldn't wait to wipe that smirk right off her face.

"Okay. On three."

"…Wait, wait, when you say "three"… do you mean like "one, two, three, go", and go on "go", or—"

Elsa looked over at her and stared. "On _three._ "

"Oh. 'Kay, gotcha. And don't roll your eyes at me," Anna snapped, catching Elsa in the act.

They both settled into their ready stances again, refocusing on the path ahead and any obstacles that might be in the way. The only distraction for the both of them was the wind ruffling the branches above them.

"One… two… three!"

Like twin rockets, Anna and Elsa shot off from the starting line and blazed a trail down the undisturbed path. Leaves crunched beneath their shoes as they ran, kicking up dirt and dust in their wake as they chased down the victory they so desperately wanted. More than anything, they wanted to prove each other wrong.

Cool, calm and collected, Elsa took an early lead as they sprinted past a stone bench on the side of the road. It was as weathered as the gazebo had been, cracked and covered in creepy roots. Its poor state was a little jarring but did nothing to throw off her concentration. With Anna hot on her heels, she couldn't afford distraction.

She vaulted over a recently fallen tree in her path, recovering swiftly and hearing Anna do the same when she expected her to stumble. The pace Elsa kept was solid, and even when she came across unexpected bumps in the road, she stormed through them without falter. Almost halfway through the race, there was no way she could be beat.

There was a certain mentality about running that she loved and kept her active over the years. Her focus had to be divided to her breathing, her destination, her environment and her will to keep any pain or aches at bay. On any given day, she was able to block out what she needed to in order to carry herself towards her destination.

Why, then, did it feel like the forest was out to get her?

It wasn't from the fear of the unknown; though not recently, she'd been down this path many times before. It was the cold wind upon her skin that threw her off most when it suddenly shifted directions. Her pace slowed just enough for Anna to pass her. Realizing this, Elsa hurried to catch up and retake her position, but that's when she happened upon an old well hidden within the trees to her right.

Covered in leaves, she couldn't get a good look at it, but just like the gazebo and stone bench it was falling apart, covered in the same black roots. _Has it really been so long since I've been out here?_ She rubbed her forehead, trying to ease away a headache as she failed to keep up with Anna. _Mother and Father have only been gone for three years… they wouldn't let it get this bad._

Meanwhile, Anna kept up her mad sprint, knowing her victory was only a few turns away. Deaf with the sound of her heart beating in her ears and her footsteps among the leaves, she couldn't hear Elsa running after her, but she was confident her sister was right behind her. Whether it be school, work, or otherwise, Elsa did not like to lose and refused to give in when it looked like she would.

It was one of the things Anna admired her for when she wasn't angry with her. But now, as she rounded a bend with the stream and waterfalls in clear sight, she couldn't wait to hear Elsa admit that she had been beaten.

There was no stopping her grin as Anna raced across the bridge, securing her win as she felt the cool mist from the waterfall cling to her face. She raised her arms in victory as she stepped to the other side of the bridge, reveling in the feeling that she had finally overcome her sister in something. "Ha ha! Take that, sis!" she cheered. "Guess who's going to be bragging for a whole month?"

She turned around, expecting to see Elsa scowling at her or taking her defeat in stride, but she simply wasn't there. "The hell…? I thought she was right behind me?" Putting her hands on her hips, Anna caught her breath as she watched the trees, knowing that Elsa would be coming around that last turn at any moment.

But she never came.

"Don't tell me you tripped," Anna joked as she walked back across the bridge. "I mean, I can't say I _wouldn't_ want to see you explain a sprained ankle to your co-workers, but… well, karma's a bitch." As she kept walking, she thought of playful insults to razz her sister with when she finally caught up.

The further she walked, though, those giddy thoughts turned serious. What if Elsa really did trip and needed help? Was she in trouble? What if a wolf got her… did they even have wolves in that forest?

Her victory meant nothing if Elsa was hurt. Worried, Anna ran back the way she came.

 _This isn't like her. She ran cross-country. She could spot a tripping hazard a mile away in the rain._

She wouldn't have gone off on a different path; they always went the same way to the stream when they were kids. If she was hurt, Anna would have gotten a phone call or text message by now. "Elsa?" she called as she ran, scared now as she couldn't find her anywhere on the path. "Elsa!"

 _Where the hell are you?!_

Anna had passed her in the race just as they were coming up on the old well. She looked to the trees, finding it alone and decrepit, and on the side of the road she discovered the body of her fallen sister lying face first in the leaves.

"Elsa! Oh my god…!"

She dropped to her knees and took hold of Elsa's shoulders, turning her to lie on her back. Elsa didn't respond to her touch, but Anna saw her chest rising and falling; she was breathing, but unconscious.

Anna struggled to comprehend what happened, fighting off a sudden headache as she wiped dirt off of Elsa's face. She wasn't bleeding, and a quick, simple check of her ankles proved that she had no broken bones. Her hands and knees had more dirt on them than the rest of her clothes, leading Anna to believe that she tried to stop herself from falling before she passed out.

 _There's no way she could have tripped and knocked herself out… and she's not hurt at all. But then, why…?_

"I gotta get you back home," Anna reasoned. She supported Elsa's back with one arm and moved to hook the other beneath her knees, but stopped when her headache rapidly grew worse. She tried to shake it off, thinking she found success when her blurred vision came back to her, but then the pain exploded back to life and for a moment, she saw nothing but white.

"…Okay, maybe an ambulance would be better."

Anna reached for her pocket, fighting herself to function as the world's worst migraine drilled into her head. Her hand trembled as she retrieved her cellphone, and before she had a chance to dial an emergency number, it fell from her fingers.

The last thing Anna remembered was the sound of splintering wood before the world turned white and faded to black.

* * *

"…Can't you call someone?"

"I can't get a signal."

"What about her?"

"I already checked. Her phone's gone."

Three voices, and she only recognized one of them.

Anna struggled to regain consciousness. She was warm… she smelled cinder and felt the cold, bumpy ground beneath her, but someone had their arm around her shoulder and was letting her rest in their lap.

She reached for them, fingers finding sturdy fabric before she felt cold skin. Slowly she opened her eyes, and as the blurry world came back to her, she found herself looking up at her sister.

"E… Elsa?"

Elsa swallowed hard and managed a meager smile. "Hi. Don't… don't move too fast," she warned when Anna tried to sit up on her own.

"I'm fine, I just… wow. It feels like I got hit by a bus. Where are we?"

"…I don't know. A forest, obviously," Elsa said, nodding to the environment, "but I don't think we're by the estate anymore."

Anna would have asked how she knew, but it was clear to her that the weather was different here than it had been at home. That, and the forest floor wasn't covered in leaves, not as far as she could tell. It was night now, and the only thing keeping them warm was the large bonfire they sat by.

It made her think of a question she was afraid to ask. She planted her heels on the ground and rested her forearms on her knees, looking to the strangers they sat with. Both were men, one blonde and muscular, and the other auburn with long sideburns. They looked just as lost as she did.

"Elsa… how did we get here?"

Her blue eyes looked beyond the bonfire, searching the darkness for an answer she couldn't find.

"…I don't know."


	2. TRAPPED

An hour passed, maybe two. The moon hung so still in the sky, sparing no concept of time, and the flame they gathered around burned slow enough that it hardly needed tending to. In their situation, there was very little they could do.

Impatient Anna circled the campsite, unable to sit still when she knew danger lurked nearby. She made an effort to keep the mood light, coming up with other, illogical reasons why they were kidnapped and dropped off in the middle of the woods. At first she did this to help the rest of the group cope with what happened to them, but as she continued on, she realized she was mostly doing it to distract herself from the persistent feeling that they were being watched.

Elsa, meanwhile, spared few words for the group once she made sure Anna was unharmed after their sprint through the forest. She resigned to a nearby fallen log, fixing her stare upon the bonfire as a thousand scattered thoughts raced through her head. There was a lack of understanding about their current predicament that gnawed at her nerves, but just like Anna, she was also fighting the feeling that she was being watched.

No… it was more than just a feeling. She snapped her head up, irritated when she caught green sights from over the flame. "Why are you staring at me?"

The red-haired man smirked. "I know you from somewhere," he said coolly, confident now when he saw the way Elsa sat up straight and looked down upon him. "Are you a celebrity?"

Shaking her head, Elsa denied his guess, wishing to keep her identity a secret. "No, I'm not."

He squinted at her, trying to figure her out, and for a moment she thought he did until he sat back and shrugged. "Must be a look-alike then," he smiled, trying to cut the tension. "But since we're stuck here for now, we might as well learn a little more about each other, right? What do you do for a living?"

Elsa looked away. "I work in an office building," she said, refusing to elaborate further. "Nothing terribly exciting. You?"

"I'm working on my master's degree. Business and marketing," he added, crossing his arms when Elsa raised her brows in surprise. "My father runs the biggest trade firm out of Denmark, so I thought I'd follow in his footsteps like my brothers."

"Ah… so you're a Westergaard."

He smirked and raised a brow. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

It was. Westergaard Incorporated was a rival company to Arendelle Enterprises, and one of the businesses the Arendelle estate gardener sold private information to. Though the incident happened over a year ago, it didn't remove the fact that Westergaard was willing to go to such lengths to overcome their competition.

Then again, if the youngest son of their family couldn't recognize her as the CEO of their biggest rival, then they were probably in desperate need of that information.

She put on a reserved smile, the same one she used time and again to fool the media into believing she was invested in their interviews. "It's a powerful name. Intimidating," she said, adding to the lie. "You have a lot to live up to, Hans."

"I think I'll manage."

His overconfidence forced Elsa to stay her tongue, disapproving of such bravado from a stranger. She glanced at Anna, thinking that her little sister would find Hans' "charm" to be just as insulting, but Elsa rolled her eyes instead when she caught sight of her; Anna was smitten. With a sappy smile and love-struck stare, Anna stopped pacing halfway through the conversation to watch and listen to Hans speak, able to do little else but sigh in content that this horrible situation led her to this hunk of a man.

It made Elsa want to vomit. She swallowed the notion of it, composing herself as she looked again to the object of Anna's affection. "Hans, I appreciate you trying to lighten the mood, but I think we need to focus on the bigger problem. The way that Anna and I were taken was… strange," she said, thankful to see he sister snapping out of her daze now with the change of topic. "How was it that you got here?"

He leaned back in his seat on a stump and crossed his arms. "My story's not much different than yours. I had a break between classes at school, so I decided to take a walk in the nature preservation behind campus; it's a wooded area like this, just not as thick," he said, nodding to their surroundings. "I was following the path, felt lightheaded, and before I could head back to my dorm, I passed out. The next time I woke up, I was here."

"That had to be scary," Anna cringed.

"Not as scary as finding your sister unconscious on the side of the road," Hans said, nodding to Elsa; her head was down and she held her chin, half-listening as she fell deep in thought. "I was glad to see you when I woke up, though. Don't get me wrong, I'm not _happy_ that we're all in this situation," he said, noticing the bright smile and blush on Anna's cheeks, "but I feel better knowing I'm not here alone."

Anna looked around their little campsite. "We got kinda lucky, didn't we? I mean—this whole thing still sucks—but we have a resourceful group of people here. You're, like, a natural-born leader," she said, pointing to Hans with an open palm and making his warm smile even more genuine. "I'm an optimist, Elsa's a nerd in _every_ definition possible," she joked, gesturing to her with her thumb, "and What's-His-Name is like a gruff, wilderness explorer expert guy. We can totally handle this!"

Hans laughed in agreement. "If I didn't feel motivated before, I definitely do now. I think your optimistic powers are working, Anna."

She flashed him a cheeky grin. "Yeah? Well…" She paused, cut off from her train of thought when Elsa raised her head and faced her with a worried stare. "Something wrong, sis? You look kinda spooked."

"None of this makes any sense to me. How is it that all _four_ of us happened to go into the woods this afternoon and pass out?"

Anna glanced at Hans with the same question, and he shrugged. "Maybe there's some kind of weird virus going around?" she guessed. Like something that's spread through pollen, or—"

"That doesn't exist."

"Okay, so maybe we were drugged?"

"All of us at the exact same time?" Elsa shook her head. "I don't believe it."

Hans gave the problem some serious thought, and the smile he held from his conversation with Anna fell into a deep frown. "Why do you want to know so bad?" he asked, smirking when he caught Anna mouthing the word "nerd" from the corner of his eye. There was no definite answer that could be found right now, and though he understood her concern, her obsession with the truth felt like a wasted effort. "I don't think it matters at this point. We're all dealing with this mess together, and finding out how it started isn't going to get us back home."

"I'm sitting in the middle of nowhere with my sister and two strangers and I have no idea how I got here. I think I deserve some answers," Elsa snapped, dismissing Hans' shortsighted goal. "Why us? Why here? And how…?" She sighed, feeling more lost now than she did before. "If I just stayed at home, if we had never gone into the forest today, none of us would be here right now."

"…You're kidding me." Anna narrowed her eyes, frowning when Elsa looked up at her. "You're blaming me for this, aren't you?"

Elsa glared back. "I'm not _blaming_ you for anything. I'm just trying to understand what happened. We all did the same thing; it's too much of a coincidence to ignore it." She raised her head and scoffed, smirking when Anna's scowl refused to fade; the light from the bonfire danced in her eyes, sparking a simmering anger Elsa knew would burn brighter at the slightest provocation. "I'm frustrated too, but don't pick a fight with me, Anna. It's a waste of time."

"Yeah, because you probably think you're blameless, don't you?" She crossed her arms, wiping the smirk off of Elsa's faced when she stared her down. "Whose bright idea was it to have a race in the woods? In case you forgot, it wasn't me."

Elsa raised a brow. "Who was the one that dragged me away from work to go to the woods in the first place, Anna?"

"Ladies, please." With a skewed smile, Hans tried to be the voice of reason. He'd been in plenty of petty disagreements with his own siblings before, and as pointless as they all were, they never ended well. "Arguing like this isn't getting us anywhere. The only person to blame for all this is the person who t… never mind," he grumbled, losing the will to stop them when their bickering grew louder. He rolled his eyes and looked to the edge of the clearing, finding more interest in the rustle of a bush than Anna's pursuit of running Elsa into the ground.

"You know what? I swear it would just _kill you_ to lighten up and pull the stick out of your ass once in a while. You are so concerned over keeping up your image and following in Dad's footsteps that you've become just like him. Actually —scratch that— you're _worse_ than him. I'm literally the only family you have left and you don't even care that I exist. You strut around the house like some goddamn queen when really you are just a frigid _bitch_."

She squared her jaw as Elsa rose from her seat and stormed at her, holding her ground when Elsa looked down from the three inches she had up on her. "You have no clue. You have no _idea_ the sacrifices I've had to make after Father died. I didn't ask to become the matriarch of this family. I didn't _ask_ for the responsibilities that were thrown at me, and I sure as hell didn't ask to inherit Father's legacy either. But at least I'm being a fucking _adult_ and working to provide for the both of us while you do nothing but complain and whine for attention like a _child_."

Hans rose from his seat, and Elsa shifted her glare to him as oblivious Anna balled her fists, ready to spit back insults as venomous as her sister's last. Just as she opened her mouth to make her retort, Hans' gentle touch on her shoulder made her pause. " _What?_ You've got a problem with me too?!"

"No, there's someone watching us."

Anna looked in the same direction, squinting at the dark woods and dismissing it after an impatient search. "There's nothing there. You're being paranoid, just like El—"

A murder of crows crashed through the thicket, crying out in panic and swooping low over their heads. Anna ducked down just before one struck her in the face, and she turned to watch it disappear with the rest of the flock into the woods on the other side of the clearing. "Whoa!"

"You alright?" Hans asked.

"Yeah. Scared little guy almost clawed my face off, but—"

She looked back to where the crows fled from and gasped, holding back a cry of panic as she started retreating towards Hans. She couldn't eke out a word when she tried to speak; all she could do was hit him on the shoulder and point his attention towards a shadowed figure emerging from the forest.

It had to be the guy who took them, who watched and waited when they were vulnerable and dragged them all here for a purpose only he knew.

Tall and muscular, he stalked towards the small group, relentless in his pursuit as they scrambled over themselves to react. Elsa backpedaled towards the forest behind them, about to turn heel and flee for her life, while Hans was poised to stand his ground and fight back against their kidnapper. He pulled Anna by the arm into the safety of his shadow, clenched his fists and took a stance. "I don't know who you are or what the hell you want, but you've got some nerve dragging us out here! Step into the light, you… oh."

His disappointed tone made Anna curious to what he saw. Still in cover behind Hans, she peeked over his shoulder, taking a moment to adjust to the fire's light again before she realized who it was. "Christopher?! What the hell!" she exclaimed, stepping out and glaring at him. "You almost scared us half to death!"

The blonde man stopped his approach and faced her with a dull glare. "It's _Kristoff_ ," he corrected, shaking his head when she huffed at him, "and I didn't mean to scare you. I pointed the flashlight on a tree of crows by accident, and…" He paused, taking notice of Elsa when she didn't move or say anything in response to his return. "Uh… hey. Are you okay?"

She sat on the ground, having tripped backwards over the log in her attempt to escape his false threat. Staring wide-eyed at him, she blinked and shook her head, breaking out of her fear-induced stupor. "I'm… I'm fine," she stuttered.

Concerned, Kristoff stepped forward and reached his hand out to help her up. "Are you sure? Because—"

Elsa scrambled to her feet, ignoring Kristoff's help as she dusted off her blazer and jeans. "I said I'm fine."

"…Did I do something wrong?"

"Just ignore her," Anna said, silently daring Elsa to as much as glance in her direction when she retook her seat on the log. "So how did your expedition into the woods go? Did you find a way out of here? Because, honestly, I am so _eager_ to go back to living with someone who _ignores me_ for the rest of my life."

She glared at Elsa, who chose to stay silent and focus all of her attention on the bonfire instead. Hans shook his head in annoyance at them both. "Sibling rivalry," he explained, enlightening Kristoff with the information. "Seriously though, did you have any luck?"

Kristoff rubbed the back of his neck. "Not much. It's so dark in there that you really can't see; without another battery, I don't know how much longer the flashlight will last," he said, nodding to the only useful thing that he managed to bring with him. "All I found in there were the crows. There's no streams, no signs, no squirrels, nothing."

"Squirrels?" Anna looked at Kristoff and raised a brow. "Why were you looking for squirrels?"

He shrugged. "For eating, I guess."

"Ew! Gross!"

"Better than starving," Kristoff shrugged again, ignoring the way Anna gagged at the idea. "If you want my opinion, I say we pick a direction and keep walking. We're dead meat if we just sit around here until morning."

Hans hooked his thumbs in his pockets, weighing their options. "If we stay, we'll have an easier time getting through the forest once we get some daylight… but then we run the risk of getting visited by our kidnapper again."

"I guess we're going then," Anna concluded. "As much as I want to punch that guy in the face… it's probably safer if we just don't see him at all." Putting her hands on her hips, she looked around to the forest surrounding their campsite. "So which way should we go?"

With his thumb, Kristoff gestured over his shoulder to the woods he just came from. "That way was pretty clear. There's no path, but it's a good starting point."

With a set plan, it seemed that they were ready to move out, though Hans was the first to notice that one member of the group had no reaction to the conversation at all. He set his stare upon the bonfire where Elsa still sat, perplexed by her sudden silence and recluse when she seemed mostly fine before. "Elsa? Come on, we can't go unless you come with us."

She didn't respond. Hans glanced at Anna and she rolled her eyes, about to remark how fed up she was with her sister until Kristoff put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He walked back to the bonfire and crouched by Elsa's side, staring at her emotionless expression when her gaze was lost to the flame. "Hey," he said quietly, nudging her hand. "I know you're probably still upset with Anna, but Hans meant what he said. We're not leaving without you." He frowned when she cringed, and the way her lips twisted made it look as though she was about to be sick. "Is something wrong?"

"…Look at the fire."

He turned to face the flame. The heat was inviting on this chilled night, as was the glow it set upon the clearing. "What about it?"

"Kristoff, the logs aren't burning."

He laughed. "It's just the light playing tricks on you. If you look closer, it—"

He cut off his sentence when he looked at the fire again. He'd already noted the obvious about it, but now that he was taking the time to really observe it, he saw what was haunting Elsa. The logs and twigs to fuel the flame were there, but they weren't burning away. There was no ash, no cinder. To an ignorant eye, the wood was engulfed and thus acting as it should.

Kristoff would have been happy to stay that ignorant, but he couldn't when he remembered that no one stoked the fire since they arrived hours ago.

"Something is wrong about this place," Elsa whispered, facing him now with sincere eyes. "It wasn't a simple kidnapping. I-I know I could be overthinking things, but…"

"No, I'm seeing it too. I don't know what's going on, but we're not going to find answers by sitting here all night."

Once again, he offered his hand to her, and this time Elsa didn't refuse to take it. She stood from her seat and gave one last look at the bonfire before returning to the group at the edge of the clearing.

Anna stared at her as she walked past with her head down, then looked to Kristoff in question when he paused to walk by her side. "What's the issue now?"

He raised a brow at her. "If you'd stop looking for ways to bitch about her, you'd already know. She's scared. It's not that hard to see."

Elsa? _Scared?_ "Yeah right," Anna scoffed. "The scariest day in our lives was the day we found out our parents died, and she didn't cry a single tear. How could someone so cold-hearted ever get scared over anything?"

She stormed past him, leaving him behind as she caught up to Hans at the edge of the clearing and latched onto his arm. Kristoff wrinkled his nose in disgust, not just for the way she fell head-over-heels in love the minute she saw Hans, but for the way she abandoned Elsa in favor of him.

Refusing to let her be singled out in the group, Kristoff caught up to her as she entered the forest. "If I looked up the term "sisterhood" in the encyclopedia, your guys' picture would not be in it," he quipped. "What's the deal with you two?"

Stone-faced, Elsa shrugged. "I wish I knew."

* * *

Anna's physical attachment to Hans ended shortly after they forged headfirst into the dark of the forest. Wanting to be cautious of their surroundings, and in an effort to protect the girls like the manly men they were, Hans led the group while Kristoff watched over them all from the back. It forced Anna and Elsa to walk side-by-side at times, though in those cases they wouldn't say a word to each other. Really, no one had anything to say at all.

With the thick canopy above them blocking the moonlight and a fog rolling in from the deeper forest, Hans cut a path with the aid of the small flashlight on his phone. When the charge died, he beckoned for the remaining two phones they had within the group, checking periodically for a cell signal that was nonexistent here.

"Who has the snowflakes on their lock screen?" he asked when he was forced to use the last phone.

Elsa perked her head up. "That's mine."

"Hmm. It suits you."

She raised a brow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Snow screen for an Ice Queen," he joked, making Anna smirk. "Or should I say, "Snow Queen"?"

"…Seriously? Are you really going to make fun of me when we're out in the middle of nowhere trying to escape our kidnapper?" She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "I expected more than playground insults coming from a Westergaard."

He looked over his shoulder at her, catching Anna's irritated glare in her sister's direction. "I was just trying to lighten the mood, Elsa."

"Then save it for later. This isn't the time for jokes."

Her comment set off an automatic reaction within Anna. She wanted to snap back. She wanted to tell Elsa to settle down, that Hans was only trying to ease the tension and that she was being a total, stuck-up snob. The words danced on her tongue, but she didn't speak them.

To Anna, Elsa had always been the perfect child in the family. She got straight A's in school, she was athletic, artistic, articulate, and always held herself with a sense of pride and purpose. She was everything an Arendelle was supposed to be, this untouchable, unbreakable holy matriarch of a dying lineage, and the one who had risen in her father's memory to secure their prominent place in the world. It was due to Kristoff's observation that Anna began to doubt the perfect vision she had of her sister. Actually, out here in the darkness, in this dreadful silence, she was starting to notice a few things she never saw in Elsa before.

It started when they left the bonfire. Elsa didn't say much, refusing to participate in the little conversations they had amongst the group as they traveled through the dark. She had a meek appearance with her hands in the pockets of her blazer instead of down at her sides, losing that presence of a person in power, and her eyes were unfocused. Every snap of a twig underfoot, every brush with a branch or patch of tall grass took her attention away from what was in front of her. She looked at every tree and plant as though it was going to come to life to kill her.

The further they delved, the more signs Anna saw, and she thought back to the campfire after she and Elsa had their spat. In deciding their course of action, she expected Elsa to be the one to make the first suggestion, not Hans. From what the media wrote, Elsa was a confident and capable leader; with such a small group, she should thrive here.

But she didn't. It took some time, but now Anna knew for certain that Kristoff was right. Elsa was scared, and it was making Anna nervous to see her this way.

"H-Hey… we've been walking for a while now, right?" Anna asked, piping up in the silence with a skewed smile. "We should be getting close to something soon, like a stream, or a road, or—"

"What about an abandoned town?"

She drew her brows together at Hans' suggestion. "That's… oddly specific, but yeah, I guess."

"Good instincts. Guess what we just found?"

He stepped to the side, showing off a clear view through the trees to a moonlit wasteland. In their immediate vicinity they could see the ruins of several brick buildings, looking as though their construction had been abandoned long before their true purpose could be fulfilled. Around and between the buildings were more trees, keeping the feeling of being trapped in the forest despite this brief respite.

"Well this looks promising!" Anna smiled, happy to step out into the clearing and get some fresh air after wandering in the thick wood for so long. Kristoff joined her, followed by Hans after he handed Elsa's phone back to her. "I mean, it looks friggin' old and it's all kind of falling apart, but… progress, right?"

The only one that seemed to share her enthusiasm was the mist as it followed them out of the forest.

"If someone started building here, there might be a map nearby," Hans suggested. "Let's keep an eye out for anything useful as we pass through."

As they quickly found, such things were scarce in a place like this. Everywhere they looked, every step they took felt like a mistake and a waste of precious time to get somewhere safe. The only completed building they found was a decrepit, splintered old shack in the distance, and its foreboding appearance was only enhanced by the fog that settled in around them. Despite what treasures the shack could have housed, they chose to keep their distance for now in case something unfriendly lingered inside.

As they put the shack behind them, they were dismayed to find something equally unsettling standing in their way. "Okay, what the _fuck_ ," Anna swore. "Who the hell builds a town in the middle of goddamn _nowhere_ and fences it in?! With spikes!" she added, noting the warped iron barbs at the top of the cobblestone wall.

Kristoff shrugged. "We can just climb it."

"And get stabbed on the way over?" Anna shook her head. "I don't think so."

Hans took a little longer to consider Kristoff's idea, then ditched it immediately when he noticed some of the barbs were pointed straight down at the interior. "Let's go back to where we walked in from. I don't care if it takes all night, but there's got to be a better way back home than scrounging through this dump."

They backtracked towards the edge of the wasteland, following their exact path and passing by the same landmarks they did once before. Anna took note of a ruined wall with a half-built window, followed by a tall, dead tree with a pallet propped up between it and a boulder. Dismissing the odd placement, she looked ahead, anticipating the relief the forest would provide until their progress came to a grinding halt.

"…This was the way we came, right?"

Hans nodded. "It has to be."

"'Kay, so… why is there a gate there now?"

The tall metal door was built into a brick wall, blocking their way to the forest with the fence extending from it on both sides. "This isn't right," Kristoff said, looking up at it. "This wasn't here before."

"Maybe the gate was open and we didn't notice it?" Anna suggested with a shrug. No one piped up to agree with her. Kristoff stepped forward, inspecting the gate to see if he could pry it open. Hans was looking for another way around or over it, longing now for the warmth of the bonfire instead of being stuck in this god-forsaken wasteland. When Anna glanced over at Elsa, she felt her heart sink; Elsa, pale as she was, now looked white as a ghost, caught in the shadow of the gate and lost in the same, dreadful recurring thought her sister had.

They were trapped.

 _There's gotta be a way,_ Anna thought. _There's got to be something… a-ha!_ "Hey, look at this!" she called, pointing to a lever on the left side of the gate. With an excited grin she walked up to it, and without an ounce of caution she grabbed the handle and pulled it down. "Piece of cake!"

Nothing happened.

She leaned back, looked at the door, looked at the lever, and then looked back at the door. "Okay, what the _fuck._ " Thinking maybe she was a little overeager in her attempt, she lifted the handle back to its starting position, and then slowly brought it back down. The gate remained closed without a sound or evidence of it working to open.

Hans shook his head, refusing to believe this was their only option. "We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere," he reasoned. "This fog is screwing with us."

"…Look up there."

Irritated, Hans raised a brow and whipped his head in Elsa's direction. She hugged her elbows and stared at the top of the gate, prompting him to do the same. "There are lights up there," she said, noticing that there were some on the lever's housing panel as well. "If the gate had power, those would be on right now."

With a slight smirk, Anna caught on to Elsa's train of thought. "So all we have to do is find the generator for this thing, turn it on, and then we should be able to open the gate, right?" She beamed to see her sister's approving nod, and to see the return of hope shining in her eyes. "Great! So where would we find one of those?"

Clueless, they all turned around, looking in different directions for something to give them an idea on where to start. Hans didn't help much as he was still convinced that there was another way back into the forest, but Kristoff was on the hunt for something that would actually be useful. He scanned their surroundings, finding it difficult to distinguish anything in the mist, but he found a tall, thin structure that stood out from the rest of the shadows. "Hey, let's try over here."

He led them across the field, dodging rocks and ruins in his way and checking back every couple feet to make sure the group was still together; in this mist, in this predicament, he felt on edge, like one wrong step would lead to someone's demise. Hoping what he found would bring them closer to safety, he steeled his heart, made a silent vow and pushed through the fog.

To his relief, his instinct led him exactly where they needed to be, drawing Anna's surprise and awe. "Okay, I'm impressed. How did you know there was a generator from all the way back there?"

For once, Kristoff graced her with a smirk. "I'm a mechanic, but I'm apprenticing as an electrician right now," he said, raising the hopes of his companions with the revelation. "The light up on that pole is a dead giveaway, but…" He knelt down to look over the generator's gears and pistons. "This thing's an antique," he muttered. "And, _surprise_ -surprise: It's busted."

Anna looked over his shoulder, staring into the "guts" of the machine. "Do you know how to fix it?"

"Hmm… yeah. I should get this back up and running in a few minutes, but it'd be faster if you guys helped out. I'll show you how to do it."

Kristoff took his time to explain the ins and outs of the basic generator, showing them what parts needed to go where, and which wires needed to connect for everything to start moving. His own progress got two of the pistons pumping, and by the time everyone took a side and started their own repairs, another two pistons were on the move with the fifth and sixth just barely grinding to life.

"Huh. This isn't so bad," Hans said, feeling better about their chances when he fit another pair of gears into place.

"Yeah. It's so easy, even an undergrad can do it."

Hans scowled at Kristoff for his remark, unknowingly bringing a smile to Elsa's face with the insult. She never took her eyes off her work, taking Kristoff's lessons to heart to pay attention to what she was doing and avoid making a mistake that would slow their progress.

Anna could only wish she had her sister's attention span and eye for detail. It wasn't that fixing the generator was boring, but the bad feeling she had before they left the campfire was coming back and distracting her in a big way. She still couldn't shake the sense that someone was watching them, and the moment her paranoia made her look away, a part slipped from her hand and caused her side of the generator to explode in a shower of sparks. She jumped and held up her hands to cover her face, looking back to the rest of the group as they stopped working and stared at her.

"S-Sorry," she apologized, feeling worse when two of the pistons stopped moving and another pair started to pump slower. Hans glared at her, but Elsa and Kristoff both looked concerned as she stood up and backed away from the generator. "I'm, uh… I'm just going to keep watch for now. Just in case, you know?"

She shoved her hands in her pockets, ignoring Elsa's worried look before she turned her back to the group and stared out across the wasteland. There was nothing out there as far as she could see, just the same silent, creepy atmosphere they had wandered into and couldn't get out of.

 _You're totally losing it, Anna. Everything's going to be fine. Once the generator's fixed we're out of here._

It was a positive thought that was promptly disturbed by the caw of a crow. She whipped her head to watch it fly in towards a nearby tree, and then cringed when she heard the generator backfire again.

"God _dammit!"_

"…Okay Hans, what you did there was try to connect the _blue_ wire with the _red_ one—"

"Shut up, Kristoff."

"Just trying to help you with your primary colors, man."

"It's dark and I can barely see. Mind shedding some light?"

"The flashlight's almost dead. I'm not letting you waste it."

"Elsa? Your phone?"

"Please focus on what you're doing."

Anna rolled her eyes, about to defend Hans and scold Kristoff and Elsa for not being team players, but the crow caught her attention again with a flap of its wings. It cawed in response to her look, cocking its head from its perch atop a metal pole near the tree and stared back at her with beady red eyes. She found it odd that the bird wasn't disturbed by their presence and hadn't been scared by the noise they were making in their repairs, let alone the explosions. Maybe it was curious, or maybe it was used to the flurry of activity.

It was so calm, Anna would guess that this crow had seen people here before, doing the exact same thing they were doing right now.

 _Ha. Yeah right. Elsa's nerves must be rubbing off on me._

So she chose to see the crow as a signal to stay calm; birds were flighty by nature, so the fact that this one had yet to be scared off proved to her that they were safe here. The thought calmed her for the moment, and she continued watching the crow as it nipped at its ruffled feathers before hopping onto a mounting arm near the top of the pole. It was content to continue on its business, not bothered by these strange people, the tense atmosphere, nor the bloodstained meathook that dangled from the end of the arm.

It was big and menacing with the moonlight glinting off its point. The blood on it was bright red, remnants of a recent slaughter.

The area suddenly flooded with light and the crow took off, soaring behind a small thicket of trees as Anna turned away to look back at her friends. The generator growled and hummed as all of its pistons churned at full speed, fully operational much to her relief. "Oh thank _god._ Now we can get out of here!"

"…It's not that simple."

Anna shot her glare at Elsa for the vague warning, but the somber looks that she and the boys carried forced her to temper her quick anger. "Of course it's not. What's wrong now?"

"A small generator like this isn't going to power a gate that big," Kristoff explained. He looked up at the light that was powered now due to their efforts, making a judgement based on their location and prior experience. "There has to be more generators around somewhere. If we fixed four more, that gate would open for sure."

That wasn't good news. It took them long enough to find and fix the first one, and after Anna spotted the meathook, every second to her felt as long as a minute. "Well… what are we doing just standing here, then?" she asked, forcing herself to wear a bright smile and ignore the looming, bloodstained threat just several feet away. She couldn't let them know she was scared, especially not Elsa. In order to keep her sister from panicking, and to hold it over her head later that _she_ was the brave one, Anna had to save face right now and keep the positivity flowing. "Let's go find those generators so we can get the hell out of here!"

Hans caught on to her efforts, and he was thankful for it. If even one of them lost faith that they wouldn't escape this trap, then they might as well lie down and die right there. He stepped forward and took Anna's hand, grinning at the way her freckles deepened when she blushed from the contact. "We know what we're looking for now," he said, reminding them all that they were no longer wandering around hoping to find a solution. "Stick together, watch each other's backs, and we'll be fine."

As Hans started leading the way to where he hoped the next generator would be, Elsa and Kristoff shared a look of concern. "You're not worried about the kidnapper?" Elsa asked, personally terrified of running into him when the world around them made little sense. "He took all of us without a struggle, he put us near that bonfire, and… he probably knew we'd come here," she realized, feeling sick. "He must have closed the gate behind us and is watching us wander around like idiots right now. He's here somewhere—"

"Elsa, hey. Calm down. Everything's going to be fine."

Hans' smooth voice and charm might have worked on Anna, but he wasn't going to get anywhere with Elsa. She glared at him, wishing she could believe him, but all she could do was listen as he preached.

"It's a bad situation," Hans said, glancing over his shoulder at her. He squeezed Anna's hand tight, and felt boosted when she squeezed his in return. "But we're still together and no one's hurt. All we have to do right now is keep moving forward."

As he gave his speech, he failed to notice the ground shifting beneath his feet. Thin, black roots snaked through the grass, melding with the dark earth as they traveled along the group's trail. None of them were the wiser.

"So what if we _do_ run into that creeper?" Anna asked.

Hans let go of her hand and smacked his fist into his palm. "We make sure that he knows it was a mistake to kidnap us in the first place."

"…You're gonna beat him up?" She looked back at Kristoff, surprised when he merely shrugged.

"That was always _my_ plan," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked down at Elsa and smiled at her, turning that same grin to Anna when she suddenly fell away in step from Hans. "I'm sure you two could outrun the guy if you had a real chance, but I'm not going to let him hurt you as long as I'm around."

Hans nodded in agreement. "The same goes for me. I'm not as strong as Kristoff," he said, finally earning some respect from him with the humble observation, "but I box on the weekends. I should be able to give him a run for his money." He turned around, walking backwards to keep moving but facing the group to continue his confident bravado. Behind him, the roots clustered in his path, sprouting a single, black flower from their tendrils. "So there's nothing to worry about, Elsa. Think of it this way: Four generators, and we can go home."

She scoffed, but somehow his simplistic view of the problem brought back her smirk. "It sounds easy when you put it that way."

"It will be so long as we keep working as a team. Keep your eyes open and don't be afraid to say something if you find anything weird. The last thing we need is to get caught of gu—"

He stepped back with his right foot, and the flower was crushed beneath his heel. Black vines burst from the ground, sparing Hans a second to glance at their red, dagger-like thorns before they wrapped around and pierced his leg.

"Ah! Aaaaah!" Hooked into his flesh, the thorns tore at the wounds they made, drawing fresh blood to the surface as the vines sunk into the ground and pulled him to his knees. "Shit! Shit…!"

Anna and Kristoff ran to his side as he made a brave attempt to free himself. He grabbed at the vine that caused him the most pain, one that had wrapped around his thigh, and managed to lift part of it off before it slipped from his hands and stabbed deeper into his open wounds. "God _damn it FUCK!"_

"Stop moving!" Kristoff warned when he tried to wrest his leg free. "You're making it worse!"

"The _fuck_ am I supposed to do, then?! Get this shit off!"

"Anna, help me. Be careful with the thorns."

She hurried to do what she was told, wanting nothing more than to ease Hans' pain and get him as far away from here as fast as she could. Elsa, meanwhile, was stuck in shock behind them, looking on as she desperately tried to understand what just happened.

It didn't matter how little she cared for Hans, but he was fine just seconds ago. He was smiling, confident, sure in himself and the entire group that they would make it through this trial together. This might be comeuppance for being foolishly brave in such an ominous situation, but he didn't deserve this. She could have easily taken his place, being the one trapped in thorns, staining the ground with her blood. It could have been Kristoff.

It could have been Anna.

The thought of seeing her sister like that scared her more than what was already happening in front of her. She wanted to tell Anna to stop trying to help Hans, that she was too close to the vines and she could be caught along with him, but the words wouldn't come when she found something unsettling creeping in the ground beneath them. Without the moon shining down from above she would have missed it, but thanks to its light it was impossible for her to ignore. Between the blades of grass, glistening with Hans' fresh blood, were black roots.

They were the same exact ones she found in the forest by the estate, corrupting the weathered outdoor furniture and emerging from the well by the stream.

Never before did she notice them near her home, nor could she understand why they were here now. Was this not a different forest? How could it possibly be the same? The lack of an answer or reason made her heart beat louder, so loud that she could hear it in her ears. Whatever courage she mustered up between the campfire and now was fading with every conclusion she imagined this night would end in.

She felt lightheaded. Her heart was racing in her chest and its slow, steady thump drowned out any other noise. What she felt and what she heard were out of sync, and before she could realize it, the ground before her turned bright red, enveloping the others in its light.

Anna noticed the shift in color but didn't care. Similarly, she could hear her heartbeat ringing in her ears, desperate to free Hans and get out of this damned place. "Okay, that's one gone," she said, smiling when the vine fell lifeless once she pulled it from his leg. "Lift that part right there so I can—"

"…Anna?"

Her brows drew together, losing focus at the sound of her sister's fearful voice. "Hold on a second, we almost got this." Reaching for another vine, she was intent to keep working until Kristoff grabbed her wrist to stop her. "What are you doing?"

He said nothing, only turned his head to look behind them. Anna glanced at Hans, and the second she saw his horrified expression, she turned around and covered her mouth, muffling a sharp gasp.

Elsa stood there, unharmed, but she was trembling in the large shadow of a man behind her. With one hand he held her by the thick of her braid, and in the other he wielded a rusted billhook. With a chuckle in his throat and a wide grin, he raised the weapon against Anna's screaming protest, threatening Elsa's neck with the curved blade and stopping only when she panicked and pulled against his arm.

She was no match for him. He was too large, too strong to be overpowered by someone as frail as her. He laughed as she tried and failed to get away, and firmed his grip on her hair when she shuddered through her tears. He could end this in an instant if he wanted to, but he didn't. He was toying with her.

"Anna… please…" Elsa begged, tugging at the man's arm with every bit of strength she had. He wouldn't budge.

There wasn't a damn thing Anna could do. If she made a move, Elsa would die. Talking seemed pointless; there was a crazed look in the man's eyes, but somehow Anna recognized it.

The moon shadowed him in a way that made some features indistinguishable, but it only took a few moments to identify who he was. She recognized his work boots and green overalls, the knitted sweater he always wore when he worked and the dirt smudges that forever stained them. She knew his light colored, curly hair, and the beard he kept trimmed and tidy.

… _It's the gardener!_

The news reports said he had gone mad after Elsa had him arrested, but she didn't believe them.

He chuckled, his voice light and giddy with his prey locked in his grasp, and his eyes glinted in the moonlight as he greeted them the same way he always had before.

"Hoo-hoo!"


End file.
